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Chapter 18
Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Becoming, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Optimism, Growth, and Fulfillment
Community, Investment, and Hard Work
Race, Gender, and Politics
Marriage, Parenthood, and Work
Power, Privilege, and Responsibility
Summary
Analysis
There is no handbook for incoming first ladies—it is not technically a job, nor an official government title. Michelle wonders quickly how she might use the position, and she reflects on how she understood others to have used it. She knows immediately that she will be measured differently than others—she will not have the same “presumed grace assigned to [her] white predecessors.”
Entering yet another new phase of life, Michelle now has to find a way to find fulfillment within this role. However, she also understands that this role still maintains the scrutiny and extra criticism that she experienced on the campaign.
Themes
Michelle knows that the role will not be easy—over the days between the election and the inauguration, she thinks about how to shape her goals. She wants to focus on military families, children’s health, and nutrition on a larger scale. But first, she has to begin finding Malia and Sasha a new school.
Just as she did when figuring out the next steps after Sidley & Austin, Michelle thinks about the issues that she is most passionate about so she can find fulfillment in whatever she decides to do—but her children remain her priority, more than this newfound job.
Themes
Michelle fills out her staff, and Barack fills out his cabinet and meets with experts on how to rescue the economy. Michelle can see from Barack’s demeanor after these meetings that the situation is more dire than most Americans understand.
Barack, meanwhile, has other priorities, now that he has the power (and a deep responsibility) to rescue Americans from the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression.
Themes
Meanwhile, their lives shift in large ways: secret service protections, giant motorcades, bulletproof everything. Michelle is now married to one of the most heavily guarded human beings on earth, which is both “relieving and distressing.” Michelle had visited the White House once before: when Barack was in the senate, she, Malia, and Sasha had taken a tour. It was massive and opulent, with 132 rooms spread over six floors. Now, visiting once more while looking for schools, she sees it as her soon-to-be home.
Michelle starts to become initiated into the luxury of the White House, but she also quickly realizes that this luxury comes with a great responsibility: the responsibility to stay safe so that Barack can run the country effectively.
Themes
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Michelle and Barack meet George W. Bush and Laura Bush, who supported McCain but vow to make their transition the smoothest in history. Laura gives Michelle a tour of the private areas, showing her a particular view from her dressing room into the Oval Office, where she can get a sense of what her husband was doing. Eight years earlier, Hillary Clinton had shown Laura Bush the same view. Michelle feels connected to all of the women that have come before her, and over the coming months, they will all reach out to support her and give her advice.
Michelle feels connected to the legacy and the history of her country, recognizing that she will be continuing the tradition of many women who came before her. However, as she relays at the end of her memoir, it is also important to her to make a new mark at the White House and update some of its traditions, so that people recognize and understand their more modern legacy as the first black First Family.
Themes
The Obamas move to Washington right after their Christmas holiday so that Sasha and Malia can start school just as their new classmates return from winter break. Both kids will need to commute by motorcade and Secret Service agents will remain posted outside their classes, following them everywhere. They now live in “a kind of bubble,” sealed off from everyone around them. Michelle drops both of her daughters off, hoping that they will have a semi-normal first day of school.
The necessity of remaining safe also comes with a great deal of sacrifice for the entire family. Malia and Sasha now live largely sealed off from the world, and the reputation of who their father is precedes them. Although they gradually are able to assimilate to these new lives, they live with a degree of publicity and responsibility that is elevated beyond most kids their age.
Themes
The pace of the transition doesn’t slow down, as Barack and Michelle are caught up in several simultaneous projects: redecorating the White House, planning the inauguration, and adjusting to their new roles. Michelle also understands the extra scrutiny that they will experience as the first African American family in the White House, being viewed as “representatives of [their] race.”
Michelle understands that people will criticize how their entire family comports itself in the White House. For many Americans, the Obamas do stand in for their race because they are the first African Americans in the White House, and thus they become extremely visible role models.
Themes
Michelle is relieved that Malia and Sasha both come home happy after the first day of school, and the next few days. After a week, the girls feel comfortable enough to be escorted only by Michelle’s mother, which makes their ride less of a production. Michelle’s mother has come to Washington to help the family adjust to life there—but she ends up staying for the next eight years.
Michelle’s mother, for her own part, continues to make an enormous numberof sacrifices for her daughter and granddaughters, again investing so much of her own life into making sure that they can be comfortable and have support.
Themes
Inauguration Day is freezing, but this doesn’t seem to affect turnout: nearly two million people flood the National Mall. The ceremony itself has an enormous weight to it—particularly, Michelle acknowledges, to those who had been part of the civil rights movement. Barack makes a point of including figures from the movement, like the Tuskegee Airmen and the nine black students who, in 1957, had been among the first to test the Supreme Court’s Brown v. Board of Education decision.
Barack’s inauguration is symbolic of a degree of progress in the country concerning race. But at the same time, Barack makes sure to acknowledge all of the people who came before him and won their own victories, which helped to pave the way for his own.
Themes
Barack is sworn in on Abraham Lincoln’s Bible, vowing to protect the U.S. Constitution and agreeing to lead the country. His inaugural speech once again calls for “hope over fear, unity of purpose over conflict and discord.” Michelle sees this truth reflected in the faces of the people who witness the ceremony.
Barack continues to call back to history but also keeps an eye on the future. His calls for optimism and hope echo so many of his campaign speeches, but now they know for certain that the country shares this hope, too.
Themes
After the ceremony, Michelle and Barack (alongside Joe and Jill Biden) lead the inaugural parade back to the White House. They return inside at 7:00pm to find that the staff has completely flipped the residence, moving out the Bushes’ belongings and moving in their own. Michelle prepares for the Inaugural Balls, slipping on a white gown that revives her thoughts about how much her family, and her life, has transformed.
At yet another turning point in Michelle’s life, her reflection on how much her life has changed speaks to a primary theme in her book: ever since she was young, she has always been growing and evolving, trying to become more and more fulfilled. She also understands that this is not the end point: that this is simply a new phase of her journey.
Themes
Michelle and Barack attend ten Inaugural Balls that evening, slow dancing to “At Last” (their “first dance” song) at each one. They return to the White House for a party of their close friends at 2:00am, but by that point Michelle is exhausted. People swarm her to talk, but she simply walks away and finds the elevator to the residence, falling into her new bed.
Even on the first day as being the future First Lady, Michelle fulfills the necessary responsibilities but also understands when she needs to take moments for herself, knowing that the next four years will move at the same breakneck pace.
Themes
